New technologies, new products, new solutions, new services. The industry, market, society, users all have become used to an ever-changing landscape with “new” concepts and products being introduced almost daily. In the tech sector, “new” is used as a byword for better, cheaper and synonymous with progress. Newness is projected as being good for consumers and end-users because it allows us to do more for less, in less time, and from everywhere.
At Q-KON Africa, we have provided services across Africa since 1988. In over three decades of service, we have learned, experienced and come to greatly value the fact that if it is technology that makes the world go round, then it is revolving around people. Today, we can look back and reflect on the Q-KON Africa story and pinpoint some of the key milestones that have punctuated our journey.
We are human
All industries act and exist on the foundation of a social, human fabric that is knitted between people and secured over time with trust. Interestingly, as much as we have a collective craving for new technology, we are far less enthusiastic about rebuilding relationships every day. This means that we are wired to prefer dealing with people we already know and have come to trust – and of course, this trust is built up over time.
For Q-KON Africa, our biggest asset today is the time we have spent, and that we continue to spend, with customers throughout Africa and more recently, the southern Africa region in particular. In over 30 years of servicing Africa, we have come a long way and have built sound foundations from which to develop the next generation of satellite services for Africa.
One of the principal benefits of being a privately owned company is that key team members remain part of the business. This in turn helps to build enduring relationships – at Q-KON Africa, we can point to customer relationships that date back to the early 2000s.
Overview
We started carrying out projects in Africa in 1995 and to date we have successfully completed work in 27 of the 52 nations in Africa. Along the way, we even achieved US State Security clearance to complete work in some North African countries. At that time, we installed microwave point-to-point networks for the GSM industry as well as deploying IPConnect solutions, which we developed as an industry first, non-line-of-sight fixed wireless access network.
Works were completed mostly on a project basis and our teams were deployed to various locations, often for extended periods. Some of the most challenging environments were probably Burundi and the famous Inanzegwe mountain sites, which were particularly hard on our vehicles.
In 2000, we started with satellite projects and the business focus switched to providing satellite plus fixed wireless access to clients in Nigeria and Angola. Until 2010, we maintained project offices and teams in both countries as we completed various satellite projects in the respective regions.
The first large-scale platform in the SADC region
In 2010, Q-KON Africa developed the SkyeVine platform, which operated on the Newtec Sat3Play hub and used the Intelsat IS28 (then known as PanAmSat NewDawn). This was Q-KON Africa’s second-generation platform, developed to service business and prosumer market sectors in southern Africa – and was also the first service for the fintech point-of-sale market sector.
SkyeVine services were sold through a network of channel partners in multiple SADC countries, servicing around 4 500 end-users at its peak. We developed the capabilities to deal with different currencies for revenue collections, building the network for local voice interconnect services and, most importantly, balancing the quality-of-service vs cost metrics.
Today, building on the success of SkyeVine, we are leading the market with Twoobii Smart Satellite Services, now available in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. We’re continuously innovating to meet the needs of industries as varied as financial services, extractive industries and even retail with our point of sale solution. Smart Satellite Services offer advanced quality of service and are ideally suited to off-grid locations with little to no access to fibre or LTE. Twoobii is suitable thanks to the available anywhere functionality and compatibility with renewable energy sources. These services can fully support reliable voice services, video surveillance and other real-time applications, and have eliminated outdated satellite myths around speed, cost and latency.
The road ahead
As we start this discussion, we need to note that 2022 marked the beginning of a new paradigm. This year, the opportunity was created for satellite technology to transition from a backup system to a first-choice network for remote and off-grid locations, as well as more conventional users.
Our journey into Africa continues as we work on strengthening the Twoobii roll-out in the southern Africa region. We are immensely privileged to have the opportunity to continue working with old and new partners alike, and our regional partners provide us with a sound and credible business presence in each southern African country; business is steadily growing.
We are already hard at work developing next-generation Smart Satellite Services solutions to meet the needs of the fourth industrial revolution. Watch this space for exciting developments and announcements for Twoobii's next-generation services that will enhance service delivery through incorporating LEO and MEO satellite constellations, and the integration of AI and ML.
Conclusion
The journey is far from over and we still believe that in the beginning it’s about technology, functions and features, but in the final analysis it’s more about people, integrity and commitment. We look forward to meeting you again soon, somewhere in Africa…
Article supplied by:
Dr Dawie de Wet (Pr. Eng. M.Sc. Eng.) – Group CEO of Q-KON Africa and Chief Engineer for Twoobii, a southern African supported satellite broadband service. With over 30 years’ experience in designing, engineering, developing and implementing wireless, microwave and satellite communication systems in Africa, De Wet continues to focus on developing telco solutions that meet the user requirements of emerging markets through class-leading technology.
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